A group of players kneeled together in a circle with their heads bowed and five more players stood by with their hands on the kneeling players' shoulder pads during the performance of "The Star-Spangled Banner."

Among the players standing with the kneeling group was Shon Coleman, who, like Louis, is a second-year player from Auburn.

NFL players have been sitting, kneeling or raising a fist during the national anthem since former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick started kneeling before games last year.

Kaepernick's protest was intended to draw attention to incidents in which police had shot unarmed black men. Kaepernick has not been picked up by a team for the 2017 season, and some observers have attributed his lack of a roster spot to his national-anthem stance.

Violence surrounding a white-supremacist group's demonstration in Charlottesville, Virginia, earlier this month has seemed to give rise to NFL players re-enlisting Kaepernick's example at preseason games, but not previously on the scale seen in Cleveland on Monday night.

Two white players were involved in the Browns' demonstration -- DeValve with the kneelers and punter Britton Colquitt with those standing beside the group.

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